Telus shareholders back share consolidation plan

TORONTO (Reuters) - Telus Corp said on Wednesday its shareholders have voted in favor of a proposal to exchange the company’s non-voting shares for common shares on a one-for-one basis.

Mason Capital Management LLC, the largest shareholder in Telus, has been locked in a bitter dispute with Telus for months over the Vancouver-based telecom company’s plan to consolidate its voting and non-voting shares on a one-for-one basis.

Mason, which held 19 percent of Telus’s voting shares as of August 31, said that voting shareholders paid more, on average, for Telus’s stock than non-voting shareholders and should be rewarded for that as the two classes merge. Telus in response argued that universal voting rights are a good corporate governance practice.